The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA, commonly known as the “Iran Nuclear Deal”) represents a rare achievement of diplomacy of many decades. It brought a major global crisis—albeit a wholly manufactured one, from Iran’s point of view—to a peaceful negotiated solution. For the first time in many decades of UN history, a situation that had been the subject of multiple Chapter VII Security Council resolutions was brought to an end without war, regime change, national dismemberment—or all of the above, as were, sadly the case in many instances such as former Yugoslavia, Libya, Sudan and others.

The JCPOA had huge potential. In the world of diplomacy, it meant that diplomats can actually reach reasonable agreements—and against all odds. While it represented a glimmer of hope for a world distraught by Forever Wars, this unique achievement of diplomacy was not welcome news for a miniscule yet influential minority that in many places had vested interests in war, hostility and domination.

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